418 



HOUSE-BOATS. 



boards. The deck timbers, H, should be of 

 two-inch plank set on edge. All these may be 

 simply bolted or nailed together, no framing 

 or mortising being necessary. 



When the bow and stern posts and the 

 transverse frames are in position (and there 

 is no reason why they should not be made 

 flaring oat ward to secure more deck-room), 

 the first course of matched boards is nailed on, 

 all abutting surfaces and edges being covered 

 with pitch. When the siding is nailed to the 

 edges of the bottom boards, use wire nails, to 

 avoid splitting and to secure a better hold. 

 Cover the first course of siding with a second 

 course, with pitch between, the same rules 

 being followed as to driving nails. Along the 

 outside angle formed by the meeting of the 



able to mark them out before driving the deck 

 nails, as the saw will otherwise be pretty sure 

 to encounter nails. Of course, if deck-timbers 

 are cut through for the hatches, stanchions 

 must be set to take the strain ; but a two-foot 

 hatch is generally wide enough. 



Towing-posts or bitts will be required at both 

 ends, and these may serve also to make fast the 

 cables when the boat is at anchor. They may 

 be placed anywhere, simply strengthening the 

 deck by means of stout plank bolted down, and, 

 in a large boat, re-enforced by carrying the posts 

 through the deck, down to a step on the bot- 

 tom. If desired, a rudder may be hung on the 

 stern-post in the usual manner, but in most 

 cases an oar or sweep will answer quite as well. 



Large vessels have been built on this plan of 



FIG. 2. 



sides and the bottom, fasten angle-irons wide 

 enough to overreach the seams, so that the 

 screws with which they are fastened will not 

 be in danger of striking the nails previously 

 driven. 



Deck-timbers corresponding with the one 

 shown at E must be placed at about two-foot 

 intervals throughout the whole length of the 

 boat. The deck may be laid precisely as was 

 the bottom of the boat, except that care should 

 be taken not to allow a surplus of pitch to work 

 up to the surface. Before laying the deck, a 

 stout strip or out-wale should be spiked or 

 bolted along the upper edge of the siding, on 

 the outside, and the ends of the deck-boards 

 nailed to it. This out-wale affords protection 

 to the siding, and if payed over with pitch 

 makes a perfectly tight line of junction be- 

 tween deck and sides. 



Hatches to afford access to the hold may be 

 cut through the deck anywhere, but it is desir- 



superimposing layers, and they have proved 

 wonderfully strong and seaworthy, even with- 

 out any interior timbers whatever. The sys- 

 tem has never found favor with professional 

 builders, but for a shallow, flat-bottomed hull, 

 such as is required for a house-boat, it is an ex- 

 cellent method of construction, and is amply 

 strong for smooth water. 



The hull being finished, nothing remains but 

 to build a house upon it, leaving a clear space 

 fore and aft and making the roof available for 

 a promenade or a post of observation. Any 

 carpenter or amateur can build such a house. 

 It may have only one room, with such ar- 

 rangements of bunks and tables as suit the 

 owner, or it may have a sitting-room and 

 kitchen and separate sleeping-rooms to suit 

 either the most economical ideas of bachelors 

 or the more luxurious notions of those to 

 whom money is no object. 



The illustration (Fig. 2), from a design pub- 



